01 November 2010

Fictions on the Field III

It's that time of year again. Celebrities are mingling with sports stars under canvas. Bart Cummings's eyebrows are featuring prominently in the media. Punters are listening to their gut feelings and wearing see-through ponchos to keep out the monsoon.

And a few lonely Onions are keeping the House fires burning, and studying the form guide...

Horses you would bet on if the 2010 Melbourne Cup were:

a historical romance set in Florence in the late 14th Century

Mr Medici

Monaco Consul

Bucaletti

Profound Beauty

a Zane Grey novel

Shoot Out

Maluckyday

Americain

one of the Billabong books

Linton

a Herald Sun article about the scourge of binge-drinking teens

Shocking

one of the much-admired articles in Playboy

Illustrious Blue

a Socratic dialogue by a Classical Greek philosopher

So You Think

the long-awaited sequel to a beloved Maurice Sendak picture book

Once Were Wild

a biography of Mao Tse-tung

Red Ruler

a memoir of a 19th-century weaver from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland who specialised in luxury woolen cloth woven with subtle flecks of colour